


start a fire in my heart

by winged_mammal



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 13:35:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7534723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winged_mammal/pseuds/winged_mammal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of random ficlets I wrote on Tumblr and am finally cross posting here. Domesticity! Angst! Threesomes! (but only in chapter five!) Training turned bangs! Shenanigans!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. how they work

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Black Lab song "Start a Fire." Because apparently they're my go-to band for titles. Note the "author chose not to use archive warnings" tag - there's a hodgepodge of potentially warnable stuff throughout, but not in all of these.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original tumblr post,](http://winged-mammal.tumblr.com/post/113672182087/this-is-how-they-work-its-root-leaving-for-her) March 15, 2015. Turned into a full-length fic on 8-28-16, [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7898428).

This is how they work-

it's Root leaving for her relevant missions for the Machine and Shaw knowing that she can take care of herself but loaning Root her favored handgun and several grenades anyway.

it's Root returning after eight days away and stumbling around in the dark of Shaw's apartment, and Shaw groaning at her for waking her up. _For godssakes, stop trying to be quiet and just get in bed already._

it's Root collapsing into bed beside Shaw, and Shaw turning her head to get a look at her. _Any new scars?_

it's Root scratching absently at a long scab on her thigh and mumbling _don't know yet_ , and Shaw reaching out to run her fingertip over it, humming in approval at the cut's healing progress. 

it's Root falling asleep before Shaw can even ask about her jet lag.

it's Root waking up pillowed on Shaw's chest.

it's the light in Shaw's eyes when she wakes up to find her there.


	2. ghosts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original tumblr post,](http://winged-mammal.tumblr.com/post/115013050742/in-the-universe-where-shaw-dies-at-the-hands-of) March 30, 2015.

In the universe where Shaw dies at the hands of Samaritan, ghosts are real.

Root doesn't realize it at first. There are times when she's in shitty situations, outnumbered and outgunned, when she makes it out by the skin of her teeth, and never notices that security guards whose aim should have been true somehow had their hands knocked out of position. That locks that should have been locked, weren't.

It's a month or so after Shaw's death that Root's finally forced to take a break. She's taken out everyone and everything she can conceivably take out, and now there's nothing for her to do but wait for a number, and it's more than she can handle. She sits in Sameen Gray's dark apartment and doesn't want to sleep, can't handle the thoughts that come with sleep. So she breaks into Shaw's stash of alcohol. Takes a drink. And another. And another after that. Starts absently fiddling with her gun. Takes another drink.

Hears a painfully familiar voice in her ear telling her " _don't_."

It's in her right ear, her deaf ear. In her implant that's been so silent since she turned her back on the Machine. But it's not the Machine's usual amalgam of voices. It's Shaw's voice. And Root yells, screams, how dare the Machine use Sameen's voice like that for its own end, but then-

"I’m not your fucking Machine, Root."

-and Root goes still.

* * *

Bonus tag vomit from the OP:

#I don't really know what this is #but what I *do* know #is that shaw gives root hell for making her spend her first month in the afterlife chasing root around making sure she doesn't join her #that shaw had gotten the hang of manipulating objects pretty quickly but the talking thing took longer #and root doesn't tell the boys for a long time partly because she fears she's hallucinating and partly because they wouldn't believe her #but eventually shaw gets the hang of physically manifesting #and the first time she does is a beautiful moment of catharsis for root #because shaw is *there* #right in front of her #that familiar scowl on her face #and root doesn't know whether to laugh or cry because shaw's there and she's naked as the day she was born #because apparently manifesting ghost clothes is a lesson for another day #when she figures it out root calls the boys to come around #and with shaw's knowledge of the facility she was kept at they make a plan to take samaritan down for good #and root tries to insist on being the one to go into their central command #and shaw just stares at her like she's an idiot and says if anyone's going on a suicide mission it's the person who's already dead


	3. first kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original tumblr post,](http://winged-mammal.tumblr.com/post/117491233642/root-doesnt-like-to-think-of-the-elevator-in-the) April 27, 2015.

Root doesn't like to think of the elevator in the stock exchange as their first kiss.

For so long, that kiss was their last kiss and its taste left behind a bitter sting that no amount of bloodshed could wash away. It was an affirmation of the connection that existed between them, but an it was affirmation designed for distraction that led to Shaw's capture, and its memory will always be tainted with crimson screams.

Their next kiss is pleasant at the time, and as it happens she sighs and thinks she detects a hint of fondness behind the exasperated lips against hers. She would have been happy with the memory, but it had only been scant weeks since her fourth attempt at a rescue had given Shaw the opportunity to escape and Harold _had_ told her it seemed too easy. That all the whispers of Samaritan's bioresearch had to lead to something.

And when that something leads to Shaw holding a gun to Finch’s head mere hours after the kiss that finally allowed her to take a breath and relax, Root closes her eyes and hears the reverberation of elevator doors and gunshots and anguished cries echo anew in her ear.

Five months, seventeen firefights, countless dead civilians, and one massive electric shock to Shaw's brainstem later, Root watches Shaw wipe sweat from her brow as she takes a step forward, her first unassisted after weeks of physio.

"You would have done it," Shaw says, leaving the confines of the parallel bars. "If Finch couldn’t have turned off this thing in my head, you would have killed me."

Root's chest constricts, the hypothetical having come all too close to being real. "Yes."

"Good."

And _that_ , years from now, is what Root will remember as the first time Sameen Shaw kisses her.


	4. rude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original tumblr post](http://winged-mammal.tumblr.com/post/118353405902/daisyducklings-made-a-really-super-rude-post-and), May 7, 2015.

"Tell me about Caracas."

Shaw's eyes flick up to meet Root's, but otherwise she remains lying still, pressed against her side. "What?"

"You said there was a story behind that scar on your thigh." Root laughs, a huff that sounds more labored than it has any right to be. "Never did tell me though."

"Now is not the time-"

"When will?"

Shaw sighs and presses her hand harder against Root's abdomen, readjusting her grip when she slips along the slick skin. "Not much to tell, really. Cole was too green and too entranced by a friend of our contact in the city. Asshole shot me when I interrupted his play time and he thought I was our target." Root laughs again and Shaw lets her eyes fall closed. "Do I look like a six foot, three hundred pound arms dealer?"

"You've got the arms dealer part, maybe," Root mumbles, her head turned and lips pressed against Shaw's hair.

"It was a good way to get out ever having to make another coffee run, though."

Something tickles at Shaw's fingertips, and she blinks an eye open to find Root's hand fumbling for hers. She tangles their fingers together and Shaw idly wonders why she's not drawing away from the contact - wasn't she meant to be holding something more important? - before her attention is drawn back to Root's voice.

"… never made it to Caracas. Is it worth it?"

"We got our target, so I'd say so." A hand makes its way from the floor to strike at her arm; too feeble to be any real admonishment, but Shaw rolls her eyes and draws on her memory of the city. "There was this one restaurant, near a lake a couple miles outside the city. Supposed to have the best hallaca you'd ever eat. It wasn't Christmas at the time though, so…"

The contrast between the cold of the concrete floor under them and the warmth spilling out between them becomes all together too stark, and Shaw finds herself nudging closer to Root. A faint twinge of pain shoots through her stomach at the movement but she brushes it away.

"Will you show me, someday?"

Shaw thinks of the heat of summer, glistening sweat and shimmering skin, of windswept hair and the distant calming smell of ocean air amid the bustling currents of the city. A comforting warmth spreads through her, and her breathing slows even as she feels Root's do the same.

"Yeah, Root." She's dimly aware of the hand at her shoulder slipping away, of her own grip on Root's fingers falling slack against her will.

"Someday."


	5. manners

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original tumblr post,](http://winged-mammal.tumblr.com/post/118686730772/i-told-you-guys-that-listening-to-infinity) May 11, 2015.

"She likes deep bites there."

Shaw lets out a groan as Tomas follows Root's instruction, his teeth sinking into the flesh at the juncture of her shoulder and neck. Root hums in satisfaction, a muttered _"good boy"_ preceding her own nibbles at Shaw's breast. As they both manage to simultaneously discover sensitive spots along her skin, Shaw's arms pull at the ropes fastened at her wrists that are keeping her on display in the middle of the room, arching her back into their touch and two sets of hands tighten their grip on her increasingly overheated body.

She imagines Root had a very stern talk with Tomas before allowing him into the apartment, laying down an extensive list of ground rules and no touching zones - which, by the look of things, mainly consisted of Root herself - and Shaw still can't figure out Root's angle on this one. But she's not going to look a gift threesome in the mouth, particularly not now that Root has buried three fingers inside her and Tomas has drifted a hand down to her clit and there are teeth and hands at her breasts, hands and teeth at her throat, and she's lost track of how many hands are actually touching her but it's both too much and not enough at all and she lets her head fall back as Root's fingers curl inside her and Tomas draws rapid circles around her clit and she thinks she hears someone let out a wanton moan.

"Come on, Sameen," Root murmurs into her ear. Shaw tugs at her restraints to resist the shiver that threatens at the heat of Root's breath washing over her skin, and the movement draws Root closer to her side. "You know what we want. And it's not polite to keep our guest waiting."

Shaw's never been one to care for manners. This time, though, she can see the merit.


	6. tailbone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Original tumblr post,](http://winged-mammal.tumblr.com/post/131039857502/amy-broke-her-tailbone-im-what-the-fuck-are) October 12, 2015.

When Shaw gets back, and gets healthy enough for it, she and Root start sparring together. It helps Shaw get her strength back, helps her loosen her muscles and get back in the rhythm of using all of her body again, and it serves as a continuation of the fighting lessons she'd been giving Root in between missions - lessons that got cut off all too soon.

One afternoon finds Root getting trapped in arm lock after arm lock, pressed against floors and walls and support columns over and over - which isn't her least favorite place to be with Shaw, but it's starting to become a matter of pride. So maybe she decides to fight a little dirty. Shaw pins her against a wall with her arms trapped behind her back and Root leans down to kiss her hard.

She feels Shaw's surprise before she starts to respond, and Root holds back her smile and moves to break free -

\- only to find her feet swept out from under her, and Shaw looking down at her with an amused eyebrow.

"The kiss as a distraction move, really?" Shaw pulls Root to her feet and dusts her off. "I think we both know that only works on you, not me."

And Root stands there for a long moment, watching Shaw's back as she bounces lightly on her feet, stretching out her arms, so full of life and energy that the station seems full to bursting with her presence. But all Root can think of is the darkness that consumed everything in her absence.

Shaw must notice her silence, and she mutters something under her breath and turns around to watch Root. "Too soon?"

Root shakes her head minutely and avoids Shaw's eyes. "It's fine."

Shaw crosses her arms and sighs, raising her eyes to the ceiling. "Look, Root. You know I don't do… _this_ ," she gestures between them, "very well. Or at all," she adds, squinting at herself.

"You don't - " A glare cuts Root off and she falls silent.

"I don't do this, but I know you have… things." Shaw makes a face, as though that should explain what she means. "Feelings and shit. But you've never asked me for any of it and that's," her head tilts side to side as she considers her words, and Root wonders if she hit her head when she fell because Sameen Shaw is talking about feelings and there are no weapons in sight.

"That's good," Shaw continues, idly scratching her scalp. "But in whatever… capacity I can do this…"

Root thinks she's going to die very soon from the sheer force it's taking her to contain her need to smile at this grumpy assassin stumbling her way through this conversation. Shaw sighs in frustration and throws her hands up, looking Root in the eye.

"Look, I'm not going to stop going on missions. But the rest of it… you don't have to worry about, all right? I'm here, I'm not going anywhere, and ugh, can we just go have sex now?"

Shaw's face scrunches and her voice is nearly a whine but Root imagines she should keep that thought to herself. She lets out the smile that's been threatening to break free and steps closer to Shaw.

"Absolutely," Root breathes, and leans in to kiss her.

Fingers dig in at her hips as Shaw returns the kiss, and before Root has the time to register the fact that Shaw's shoulder is digging in at an unusual spot, she's being flipped over Shaw's back and lands with a sharp pain in her tailbone.

Shaw's face comes into view, grinning at her upside down as Root catches the breath that's been knocked out of her lungs. "You really need to work on not falling for that."

(John gives Shaw a Look when he sees the way Root winces every time she sits down. Shaw doesn't see any reason to correct his suspicions.)


	7. misc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one's a collection of oddball snippets that are too short or too rough and meta-y to warrant their own chapters, but I like too much not to include.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original posts [here,](http://winged-mammal.tumblr.com/post/118434864250/when-shaw-teaches-root-how-to-fight-root-insists) [here,](http://winged-mammal.tumblr.com/post/108156121457/no-im-not-imagining-what-would-happen-a-couple) [here,](http://winged-mammal.tumblr.com/post/131053835687/i-love-it-when-you-write-d-shaw-attempting-to) and [here.](http://winged-mammal.tumblr.com/post/132752503472/imagine-if-you-will-the-first-time-root-and-shaw)

When Shaw teaches Root how to fight, Root insists that it's only fair for her to teach Shaw some hacking skills too

And she does, and Shaw's good, but they both know she'll never be at Root's level. So Root makes up a little altoids tin or something with a couple different USB drives with various decryption algorithms and little dongles to hijack wireless signals and such, to help Shaw out when she's in a pinch

And she tapes a picture of herself winking (terribly) at Shaw to the inside of the lid

And whenever Shaw heads out for a mission she calls out

"Don't forget your rootkit, sweetie."

* * *

no, I'm not imagining what would happen a couple years into the future, when Root is the only one who still refuses to believe Shaw is dead, and the rest of the team has had to pull her back from the brink of self-destruction so many times because the pain is too much to bear and it only goes away when she's wreaking havoc and even then it never really leaves, it just sits there in the back of her mind, fueling her rage and making her careless and reckless and nearly getting her killed time and time again

and I'm certainly not imagining John telling her she has to slow down, she can't keep up this relentless pace forever, she's constantly been _go go go_ since they lost Shaw, it's going to kill her if she doesn't stop, and Root just yelling at him because she doesn't know what else to do and Shaw's _dead_ and how is she supposed to be able to move on from that - and she and John both freezing at her choice of words and Root finally just breaking down as she cries that _she's gone_ and John taking her in his arms and saying _I know_

and I'm definitely not imagining the team having a memorial service of sorts for Shaw, Root having finally accepted that she has to move on but needing some place concrete to come back to so that she can feel connected to her again from time to time, and they've long since relocated out of the old subway station so they decide that's where they'll have it so it'll stay undisturbed, and they know Shaw wouldn't appreciate much by way of sentimentality so it's just her name engraved on some metal hanging on the wall, maybe Gen's Order of Lenin or one of her guns resting alongside it, and the rest of the team just stands back and silently watches as Root puts it in place and Bear sniffs at the ground and whines until John and Finch leave with a nod to Root, and Fusco runs his hand along the wall and says _thank you_ and waits by the door for Root, and Root just stands there for a while and thinks about bad code and love and being alone in the end and clenches her jaw and lets Fusco put his hand on her back in support as they leave.

I don't know why I would be imagining any of that, because that is fucking _rude as hell, brain_

* * *

I live for Root and Shaw traumatizing the boys. There would absolutely be a point where their sparring turned to sex on the mats in the station and John would walk in and grumble

"You couldn't keep it in your pants long enough to get to the bunks, Shaw?"

and Shaw would break away from Root's neck and growl at him

"It _is_ in our pants, John."

because of course they were too desperate to get their hands on each other to get naked and just shoved their hands under each others clothes.

and John would wince and know when to leave it be and disappear into the furthest corner of the subway while the ladies continued with their activities~

* * *

Imagine, if you will, the first time Root and Shaw get naked together:

Shaw's all good and ready to make Root come apart, but as she lies Root on her back on the bed and runs her hands down her sides, she notices something.

Her fingers trail over a mark, a tattoo, it looks like, on Root's side under her ribs. "What is this?"

And Root squirms a little, because that spot has always been a little ticklish, and she just wants Shaw to get on with it. "A tattoo," she says simply, and nudges her hips up into Shaw's.

Shaw squints at it, cocks her head a little. "Is it unfinished, or what?"

Root sighs and braces herself. "It's a forward slash. Root directory of a Unix system."

Shaw's fingers go still and she stares blankly at Root. "You got a tattoo of your own name."

"In my defense, I was twenty and undercover with some college students and they wouldn't take no for an answer when we were all at the tattoo shop."

Shaw sits up a little, her skeptical eyebrow belied by the twitch of amusement at her lips. "And what did your friends have to say about this next level narcissism of yours?"

"I… might have told them I was really into Star Trek slash," Root hedges, and at Shaw's expression she seizes her by the hips and flips them over. "But nevermind that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm 10000% going to get Root's tattoo for my next tattoo.


End file.
